MEDIA RELEASE COURTESY OF: SAVE VCA

As the February 12 deadline for submissions to the Victorian College of the Arts Discussion Paper draws near, the need to speak up for elite arts education is ever clearer. It takes about 5 minutes to do a submission.

In an interview on ABC radio, Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard avoided any suggestion of coming to VCAs aid by considering funding through the Arts Ministry (like Sydney’s NIDA) and thus granting VCA autonomy. Furthermore, the Minister curiously defended the highly controversial University management of VCA saying: I think the University of Melbourne is doing its best to manage the VCA becoming part of what the university does (ABC 774 Jon Faine Program 22 Jan 2010).

The industry report card on the University of Melbourne is very different. VCA graduates Julia Zemiro and Academy Award Recipient Adam Elliot took to YouTube this month to encourage arts lovers to do a submission to the Discussion Paper in defence of VCAs style of elite, studio-based, practical training.

It is also a pivotal time for the arts in Victoria. Michaela Boland of The Australian asserted that during the reign of former Arts Minister Lynne Kosky “the arts sector was left without a connected and informed advocate when it might have benefited from one” (23 Jan 2010). In new Arts Minister Peter Batchelor we must demand this advocacy for VCA and the arts business it services.

SAVE VCA have been working hard to make doing a submission to the Discussion Paper easier. You will now find a generic Microsoft Word submission template on our website which you can quickly personalise and submit. We have also posted sample submissions which follow different formats that you can view.

Sincere thanks for your interest and we hope that with your help the Discussion Paper process will finally enable a path that will SAVE VCA.

Our website isvery current, and has an entire section on the Discussion Paper, including a quick submission template: it takes about 5 minutes to do a submission.

SAVE VCA
savevca@savcevca.org
http://savevca.org/
http://www.facebook.com/savevca
www.youtube.com/savevca

Adam Elliot on the Discussion Paper
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBCVSyoc0X8